Work

A Study of the Microdynamics of Early-Childhood Learning

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper investigates the weekly evolution of skills as measured by unique data from a widely-emulated early childhood home-visiting program in rural China. The design of the study avoids input endogeneity issues and lack of comparable measures of skills that plague previous studies. Skills, nominally classified as the same, in fact, do not appear to share a common unit scale across levels. They are produced by skill-lifecycle-stage-specific learning processes. A novel dynamic stochastic skill production model for multiple skills is developed, aligning with empirical evidence. The model explains the "fadeout" of measures of learning through forgetting or depreciation of skills.

Source: Journal of Political Economy

DOI: 10.1086/739256

Authors: James J. Heckman, Jin Zhou

Institutions: University of Chicago, City University of Hong Kong

Language: English

Topic: Early Childhood Education and Development

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development